Jammu & Kashmir | Congress Veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad Brought Down by Alleged BJP Links

In August 2022, Abdul Rashid, a resident of Kashmir’s Anantnag district, learned that his “leader” was going to launch his own political party in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). He was excited, as were the hundreds of loyalists of this leader whose tenure as Chief Minister in the region (from 2005 to 2008) was often hailed as a “golden period” of governance.

Indeed, the next month, the veteran Congress leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad, launched his own political party—the Democratic Progressive Azad Party (DPAP)—severing ties with the Congress, with whom he had a five-decade-long association. The party was launched amid a massive political vacuum in J&K created by the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019. Azad took with him nearly 70 Congress leaders from J&K. 

With the abrogation of Article 370, almost all mainstream political leaders had been put behind bars. Three former Chief Ministers were booked under the controversial Public Safety Act. Political leaders feared criticising the Central government or participating in political activities. With this, the leaders had lost their connection with the public. As the BJP government did its best to make regional political parties irrelevant, Azad’s emergence with a new party energised the people of J&K.

Like Rashid, many supporters of Azad saw the new party as a ray of hope, and as a credible political alternative in J&K: one that could address their concerns and bring stability to the region. Little did they know that the party would soon collapse like a house of cards. 

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Azad, who left the Congress due to differences with Rahul Gandhi, was praised by Prime Minister Modi. Naturally, there were rumours that he might join the BJP. But amid the speculations, the former Chief Minister came up with DPAP.

During the Lok Sabha election, Azad took part in road shows, workers’ meetings, and other activities in order to mobilise support, portraying himself as a key player in J&K’s evolving political landscape. Concerned that Azad might take a significant vote share in the parliamentary election, regional political parties, including the National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and others alleged that Azad had a “secret alliance” with BJP to divide Muslim votes. The party got the reputation of being BJP’s C-team, which, party sources say, severely damaged Azad’s credibility. 

In the election, however, the party struggled to make an impact: all DPAP candidates failed to secure a single seat and even lost their security deposits. As per Election Commission data, none of the DPAP candidates managed to secure even four per cent of the votes. Ghulam Mohd Saroori, contesting from Udhampur, received 3.56 per cent, Saleem Paray from Anantnag-Rajouri got 2.47 per cent, and Aamir Bhat from Srinagar secured 2.24 per cent of the votes. Saroori, a close aide of Azad, failed to secure a lead from the Inderwal Assembly segment, which he had represented thrice. “This was the first major setback for the party,” said R.S. Chib, former Minister and general secretary (org), DPAP.

The BJP tag

Meanwhile, DPAP spokesperson Salman Nizami told Frontline that they received a “huge setback” after they were labelled BJP’s proxies by other regional political parties. Chib asserted that DPAP had no intention of helping the BJP secure seats in the region. In fact, before resigning from the Congress, Azad aimed to “strengthen” the party, not divide it, as some claimed, Chib added. “But he was misunderstood and pushed against the wall. He had no option but to form his own party.” 

Azad himself acknowledged in an interview that “if Prime Minister Modi had not shed tears during his farewell speech in Parliament, he would not have received this stamp [a BJP tag].” 

As the much-awaited Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir approached, Azad distanced himself from the campaign, citing poor health, leaving his party in disarray. But, following widespread criticism, he attended a couple of rallies. Out of 90 Assembly constituencies, Azad’s party contested 23 seats and lost all. This further weakened its political relevance. Azad’s poor health, the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha election, the BJP tag, and the lack of funds, each contributed to the party’s abysmal performance, said Chib. Asked to contribute from their own personal resources to run the election campaign, leaders began to abandon the party, he added.

In Jammu, a number of leaders who had quit the Congress and joined Azad’s, left him the very year his party was launched. Former Minister and Congress leader Peerzada Mohammad Syed left the Congress in August 2022 to join Azad but returned to the Congress after just four months. “I was casual labour in DPAP,” he said. “Azad sahib wasn’t connected to the grassroots and the party was in an absolute mess,” he added. Former Minister, and one of the founding members of DPAP, Taj Mohiuddin resigned in 2024. His exit was soon followed by over two dozen members whom Azad had personally brought into the party. Former Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand, who also joined Azad’s party in 2022, soon realised “there were strong differences between him and the Congress.” Chand, along with two other leaders, was expelled the same year by Azad for “anti-party activities.”

Mohiuddin told Frontline that the party was launched to provide an alternative political force to the people of J&K; but a couple of statements made by Azad, he said, did not go down well with the people and the party was criticised. For instance, when he batted for BJP’s “one nation one election”, it sent an unsettling message across the region, he said. In September 2024, Azad said that the restoration of Article 370 is not possible through the J&K Assembly: “These promises [regarding the restoration of Article 370 by the political parties during the poll plank] are not grounded in reality.” The previous year, Azad controversially remarked: “Kashmiri Muslims were Hindus who converted to Islam.”

An uncertain future

Azad contested only a few elections in J&K: First in 1977 from Inderwal for the State Assembly, where he was defeated; then in 2006, when he won the Bhaderwah seat in the byelection, months after assuming office as J&K’s Chief Minister in 2005. He retained the seat in the 2008 Assembly election.

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Much of his political career was shaped outside J&K, with his nominations to the Rajya Sabha by the Congress. He won the 1980 and 1985 elections from Washim in Maharashtra. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra in 1990 and again in 1996. Azad also served as the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha from 2014 to 2021 and was appointed minister of parliamentary affairs in the Manmohan Singh government until October 2005.

Today, Azad’s DPAP is inactive, with most of its key leaders rejoining the Congress, leaving its future uncertain. Azad, say sources, is disappointed and disheartened. His turbulent equation with the Congress makes his return to the party unlikely. “I don’t see him going back to the Congress; I think they have closed the door on him,” said Zafar Choudhary, a political analyst and senior journalist from Jammu. He added that Azad is not in a position to be appointed a governor or a lieutenant governor of any State or Union Territory either: “The current regime in Delhi is not given to such appeasements.” he said. 

Can the veteran politician still remain politically relevant in J&K? Omar Kakro, a DPAP worker from Kashmir’s Baramulla district believes so. While the party’s performance has been disappointing, they “have not lost hope” for its future, he told Frontline.

Auqib Javeed is an independent journalist based in Jammu and Kashmir. He reports on human rights, politics, and the environment.